NEW ORLEANS -- Despite the lockout by NFL owners, the Detroit Lions are continuing to monitor the rehab progress of all their injured players, including quarterback Matthew Stafford who had right shoulder surgery in January.

While Stafford isn't at the point yet where he's throwing a football, Schwartz said, "From all of our reports, everybody's been very pleased with his rehab.''

While the Lions can't talk directly to Stafford, they can get information from the people who are working with him at the rehab facility.

"Our trainers are in communication with - not the players - but the people who are doing their rehab,'' Schwartz said today at the NFL's annual owners' meeting. "I'm not sure exactly how often they're in touch, but I get reports on a fairly consistent basis. That doesn't mean I get a report every time somebody talks to a guy or something like that. We can't supervise, but we can communicate with the supervisors.''

Schwartz was asked what he's learned about Stafford during his injury-filled first two seasons.

"That we need to keep him on the field,'' Schwartz said. "I've heard a lot of people talk about young quarterbacks and potential of missing off-season work and how it's set them back and all those things. I know enough about Matt to know that we're not really talking about that with him. We're talking about his health, we're not talking about whether he needs to learn the offense or he needs to become a more accurate thrower or he needs to learn what defenses or his work ethic has to be get better ... he's not dealing with issues like that. It's his availability of getting on the field and we have full confidence that he's going to get that behind him. There's nothing that he's had injury-wise in his first two years that's going to affect him moving forward. We need to keep him on the field.''